Saturday, July 01, 2006

Artichokes Day 118

I wasn't sure I'd ever see a bud on my artichokes, but one of the artichoke plants has just formed a bud. It's still very small even though it looks huge in the first photo. This is the first year I've ever tried artichokes. Although artichokes are certainly not a typical Massachusetts crop, I've seen them in other's gardens that know that it is possible. The plants must be tricked into thinking that they are in their second year when they are only really in their first year. Apparently this one has been fooled. You can see previous photos of the artichoke sprouting, on day 20 and on day 57 if you'd like to follow its progress. If I actually get to eat one of these artichokes this year I'll create a post of exactly the steps I followed.


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5 comments:

  1. Walter Jeffries6:59 PM

    I'm green with artichoke envy. :)
    Interestingly, the leaves remind me of Canadian Thistles. I wonder if they are related.

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  2. Urban Agrarian2:45 PM

    Yes the are related. If the artichoke bud is allowed to bloom it looks like a large thistle flower. Too bad artichokes are not as tenacious as Canadian thistles. If so we'd all get to eat artichokes all of the time.

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  3. Anonymous11:42 AM

    I'm planning on growing my own artichokes next year here in Maryland and found this blog. How did it all finally turn out? Any more pics, thoughts, words of wisdom?

    Thanks!
    Tony

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  4. Urban Agrarian1:41 PM

    Anon,
    I considered the artichoke growing a success. The artichokes did not end up a large as the ones that I see in my supermarket, but were still fine. I suspect that this is because my plants only get one season and never totally mature. I will grow them again this year. What I will do differently will be to start the seeds even a few weeks earlier because they seemed to be such slow growers at first. I'm in zone 6 in Massachusetts because I'm not far from the ocean. My community garden where I planted them is probably in zone 5 a half a dozen more miles inland. I would guess that you would have even more growing days in Maryland. If winters continue to be as mild as the last few years, you might even be able to overwinter them. This is not an option for me because my community garden gets plowed each spring. The middle photo in the following post shows some harvested artichokes.
    http://urban-agrarian.blogspot.com/2006/08/spigariello.html

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  5. Gold Guide for World of Warcraft4:33 PM

    good post :)

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